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B. Rother (2005) ‘’Analysis of the compatibility of selected quality systems in agriculture and food production
‘’
Paper,
EAAE-Seminar Quality Management and Quality Assurance in Food Chains
Document:
Rother.pdf
Abstract
Many different mandatory and voluntary quality systems in agriculture and the food industry are now in existence throughout Europe, which is not only confusing for producers and processors but also expensive and time-consuming.
The individual quality systems have a wide range of criteria and requirements, structures and checking regulations. It can however be assumed that they also have many parallels, since they frequently have a legal foundation and many of the requirements are similar.
The purpose of this study is to compare selected major quality systems on the basis of their farmers’ check lists, and show where their requirements differ and where they are identical.
The check lists are used because they help the farmers to document their flow of goods and processes and help them prepare for an audit. In addition, these check lists enable farmers to minimize the risk of claims against them by drawing their attention to the legal requirements and helping them to systematically observe them.
The purpose of this compatibility analysis is to show where the systems are similar and recommend ways of coordinating them.
Keywords: quality systems, compatibility analysis, farmers check lists
Relevance to our study:
This is a study regarding the comparison of different quality systems.
For the comparison the COP software was used: the criteria entered from the individual checklists form the basis of a number of analytical procedures. The COP software performs a compatibility analysis, identifying the smallest common denominators and showing the plus factors of the individual systems. It also produces individual checklists for each of the quality systems involved and combined checklists for several quality systems.
The quality systems GQ, IKB, Eurep GAP?, BQM and KKM were compared on the basis of the farmers’ checklist. This article illustrates the system comparison in the product area of milk ( KKM “Keten Kwaliteit Melk”, a Dutch quality system and QM Milch “Qualitätsmanagement Milch” initiated by the German Farmers’ Association).
It is perfectly possible to compare quality systems. However, their comparability is complicated by the differing structure of the systems,
which makes it difficult to show how the contents compare with one another.
Recommendations are also present in this article, regarding standardization of the structure of quality systems, providing the farmers with complete checklists and guidelines, inclusion of legal requirements into the checklist, detailed requirements instead of abstract ones.
Relevancy on a scale from 1 to 5 = 4
Review status: Finished
Review started on 2009–01–21
Reviewed by Samanta Rosi Bellière?
Comments:
